Is there a case here

My wife was terminated from her job at a nursing home. The circumstances where as follows:

On her regular rounds she charted that another nurse had removed a bed alarm from a patients bed.

Prior to that she had reported this same nurse (a Male) had thrown jelly beans at a resident who was completely defenseless and had no means of reporting these actions for themself.

After pressumably being called on the carpet for these actions by the facility the Male nurse then pushed a med-pass cart at my wife when she came on for her shift that evening and began yelling at her. My wife who became shaken, left the wing and went to another to seek refuge with another nurse. She was followed by the male nurse. My wife then walked out of the facility with the male nurse on her heals still yelling at her. He followed her to her car and even held the door open to continue his yelling, so that she could not shut it and until a witness pulled into the parking lot did not let go.

When she arrived back at home that night she immediately called her Director of Nursing and Executive Director and left messages for them both (it was approximately 10 PM as my wife reports to work at 9:30 PM to begin midnight shift)

The next day she was terminated for job abandonment for leaving the facility without notifing a direct supervisor. They also noted that she should have went to another nurse to calm the situation...My wife reported to them that atleast to other RN's had witnessed the tirade and neither wanted to comfront an angry man.

Is the facility standing behind a bad nurse because my wife could be a wistle blower for the patient mistreatment? Has she been retaliated against? Is this a hostile work enviornment? Does she have growns to seek getting her job back or a settlement?